An Aging Workforce: A Manitoba Perspective

Atlanta Sloane-Seale, Bill Kops

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of an online survey that asked Manitoba employers about the employment of older workers. The survey attempted to gain insight into benefits of and challenges to engaging older workers; strategies to recruit, retain, and engage older workers; and the role of education and training for older workers. This research was informed by an earlier inquiry about age, work, retirement, and lifelong learning where focus groups were conducted with senior management and selected human resources (HR) managers in a public sector organization. Those results were reported at the Canadian Association of University Continuing Education (CAUCE) Conference in 2010. The results of this survey provide a look at practices for retention, recruitment, and engagement of older workers, and they outline organizational conditions that allow those practices to be successfully implemented.